Kako pomoći čitaocu kroz akademski tekst? Analiza jezičkih 'signala' u akademskim tekstovima engleskih i srpskih autora
How To Help A Reader Through An Academic Article? Signalling Devices In Research Articles Written By English And Serbian Academics

Summary/Abstract: The paper presents a contrastive-linguistic study which examines the employment of linguistic devices (such as logical connectors, sequencers, reminders, announcements, topicalizers and action markers) by which academic writers guide their readers through academic texts. The employment of these linguistic signals is a recommended writing convention within Anglo-American writing cultures, but not sufficiently recognized by a number of non-English academic writers. This assumption is a starting point in our research conducted to compare the use of linguistic signals in academic articles in three scientific disciplines (chemistry, geology and ecology) written by English and Serbian academic writers, as well as to interpret the obtained results in the light of J. Hinds' (1987) new language typology which deals with 'reader's vs. writer's responsibility' for understanding a piece of academic writing. The results of the research show that signalling devices are differently used by the two groups of academics (approx. 62 tokens per 10,000 words in the English academic discourse and 31 tokens per 10,000 words in Serbian academic writers), so that it can be concluded that Serbian academic writing is more 'the reader-orientated' type of discourse, in contrast with English academic style. Besides presenting the results of the conducted research,the aim of the paper is to offer a model by which the use of signalling devices in academic writing could be examined, but also to draw attention to their importance when writing for international academic community.

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